Running Firefox 3 on Debian Etch with GTK 2.10

If you try to launch Firefox 3 on Debian Etch, you will see this message:

We're sorry, this application requires a version of the GTK+ library that is not installed on your computer.

You have GTK+ 2.8.
This application requires GTK+ 2.10 or newer.

Please upgrade your GTK+ library if you wish to use this application.

You need a GTK+ version of at least 2.10, which compiles fine on Etch.

Download GTK+ 2.10 from gtk.org and do this:

# cd /opt
# tar xjf gtk+-2.10.14.tar.bz2
# mkdir gtk210
# cd gtk+-2.10.14
# ./configure --prefix=/opt/gtk210
# make
# make install

If .configure complains that some package is missing (mostly some devel stuff) install it and run .configure again.

Now create the start script "firefox.sh":

#!/bin/sh
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="/opt/gtk210/lib"
/path-to-firefox-3/firefox $*